Garden umbrellas are generally large in size and, therefore, require special mechanical systems for opening and closing the umbrellas in as convenient and easy manner as possible. One commonly employed mechanical system involves a pulley and cord arrangement wherein a pulley wheel is mounted at the top of the umbrella pole with one end of the pulley cord attached to the umbrella ribholder for lifting the ribs during opening of the umbrella while the other end of the pulley cord is pulled downward by either direct hand manipulation or by a mechanical hand crank. In the U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,907 issued on Feb. 4, 1986 to Emanuel Dubinsky, the same inventor as the present patent application, there is disclosed a pulley system for opening and closing an umbrella by changing the position of a ribholder adapted for slidable movement along a solid wood umbrclla pole. In such patent, a pulley wheel is mounted in the umbrella pole below its top portion with one end of a pulley cord fixedly attached to the rib-holder while the other end of the pulley cord extends below the closed umbrella cover with two, spaced apart cord handles being adapted to be grasped by the operator for raising or lowering the ribholder to the required positions for opening or closing the umbrella. One of such pulley cord handles has a locking pin adapted for insertion into a hole in the umbrella pole for stopping the downward travel of the ribholder and supporting the umbrella in a fixed open position.
While the above described patented pulley system employing cord handles for manipulation of the pulley and umbrella are widely in use, there are also widely used the other type of pulley system having a hand crank mounted near the lower, middle portion of the umbrella pole. Here, in one arrangement, the pulley cord is connected internally through the inside of a hollow, umbrella pole to the hand crank mechanism which controls the pulley cord and, consequently, the opening and closing of the umbrella canopy. Generally, the hollow, umbrella pole is made of hollow aluminum since it provides the required strength while allowing the interio passage for the pulley cord to operate within as it extends from the hand crank mechanism up to the pulley wheel at the top of the pole. For various reasons, such as appearance or aesthetics, it is more desirable, or even required by the consuming public, to use a wooden umbrella pole. One example of this is the large market umbrellas that are constructed with wooden support ribs, a wood ribholder or runner notch and a matching wood pole. These market umbrellas have been made with solid wood poles and a pulley cord system having cord handles for operating the umbrella as described above with respect to the U.S. Pat. No. 4,567,907 to Emanuel Dubinsky. In some situations, it is desirable to have a wooden pole market umbrella that employs a hand crank mechanism. However, the manufacturing process to make a hollow wooden pole will become complex and costly, and most likely result in a pole having substantially reduced structural strength and rigidity which is inadequate to meet the requirements of the large outdoor umbrellas. One alternative to the hollow wood pole design is to connect the pulley cord between the hand crank mechanism and the top pulley wheel in a manner whereby the cord extends along the outside of the pole. This external cord arrangement can be cumbersome with the cord possibly interfering with the travel of the ribholder, or the cord becoming knotted or intertwined with other umbrella parts. Additionally, it is not visually appealing to have the external cord and hand crank combination, particularly when compared to having the pulley cord hidden from sight.